New Zealand Ambassador’s Reception, Munich, November 2023

The German Australian Business Council and AHK New Zealand welcomed H.E. Craig Hawke, New Zealand Ambassador to Germany, on 8 November 2023 at the Adina Apartment Hotel Munich.

H.E. Craig Hawke addressed “optimism” as a key stone of NZ’s way of life and touched on a number of topics including NZ’s diversified culture and attractiveness to students. He discussed the genuine partnership between Germany and NZ to be flourishing, partly due to the repatriations of Mauri historical remains from Germany which has been welcomed and much appreciated by NZ’s society. H.E. Hawke spoke of a key objective between both countries as having contemporary political relations, for example, science co-operations in the fields of hydrogen and space, collaborations between German and NZ universities and partnerships between the agriculture ministries. Germany is considered one of the most important trading partners for NZ and is proud that the Free Trade Agreement between NZ and the EU is the greenest FTA.

Monique Surges, CEO at AHK New Zealand and Supervisory Board of BayWa AG, thanked the Business Council for the event: Getting New Zealanders together. She spoke of BayWa being a great example of acquiring a NZ based company that successfully provided global market expansion. 

We were fortunate to have Clemens Baumgärtner, City of Munich join the evening and have Education NZ alumni attend.

Special thanks to our sponsor BayWa Global Produce and appreciate our supporters the City of Munich (Referat für Arbeit und Wirtschaft der Landeshauptsatdt München), AHK NZ and the NZ Embassy. Without this support, such successful events are not possible.

We also thank our New Zealand friends attending our first NZ led event and look forward to having more.